Sunday Homily, April 8, 2018, 2nd Easter

Readings:

 2 Samuel 29.

Psalm 23,    The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want. (a beautiful psalm)

Ephesians 2, 13-18, He is our peace.

 Mark  6, 30-34, Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while. 

 

 

 

Background on Samuel and Ephesians:

 

The Old Testament, like the New Testament, is written in parable-like stories.  Very seldom does our liturgical calendar present to us a complete story.  The intention of our OT reading today is to make us aware that the words and deeds of the Messiah would fulfill the words and deeds of King David.  So, I’ve chosen for you from the OT a very short but complete story about King David’s words and deeds.   

 

 

A few  words on David: he was the youngest of the eight sons of Jesse, yet God directed the prophet Samuel to anoint him as the king of Israel to replace a conceited and jealous King Saul.  Almost immediately David accepts the challenge given by the giant Philistine soldier Goliath for an Israelite soldier to face him in man-to-man combat—winner take all.  With a sling in his hand David embedded a stone in the forehead of the Philistine.  King Saul begins to fear David’s popularity; but Jonathan, the king’s oldest son, makes a sacred covenant with David to protect one another that extends to their descendants. Our OT reading happened 10 or 12 years later.   

In Ephesus, Paul reminds the Jews who have become Christians that God is rich in mercy.  God has brought them life through the words and deeds of Jesus Christ. It is by grace that they have been saved. 

 

 

Homily:

The dilemma in the parable of the first reading is that the crippled son of Jonathan in fear and shame has ended up in Lo Debar, a spiritual slum.  He is a forgotten person with seemingly no way out and no place to go.  The wisdom of the this parable is that Jonathan’s son responds to the goodness and kindness that flows forth from the covenant Jonathan had made with David, ‘He now eats at the table of King David, like one of the king’s sons.’  The parable ends by telling us that being crippled in both feet no longer brings shame to him; but rather it is now how and why Jonathan’s son was able to accept the wisdom of the parable.  King David gave him a way out of Lo Debar, and a place to go to be refreshed.

In today’s Gospel reading, Christ is the Good Shepherd; all who come to him to receive his Spirit filled words are spiritually healed, for he has made a covenant with God to last for all eternity. A forgiven humanity are always invited to eat at the Lord’s table.  Christ fulfills King David’s words and actions! He has embraced us with the Holy Spirit so that we can be Christ to others.   

So, take the opportunity to welcome this coming week someone who is lonely, or forgotten; someone who is spiritually crippled or afraid, for ‘the Spirit of the Lord is upon you to take the good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to the captives, to give sight to the blind, to set the downtrodden free, to proclaim this year as the Lord’s year of favor.’  

  

 

 

 

 

Readings: 

Isaiah 11, 1-10, The wolf shall be a guest of the lamb.  A beautiful dream of peace by someone who lived centuries ago and dreamed.

Psalm 72,  Justice shall flourish in his time and fullness of peace forever.

Romans 15, 4-9,  Welcome one another.

Matthew  3, 1-12, I am baptizing you with water.

 

Apologies, Everyone. Because of the dangerously icy roads and sidewalks, we canceled our Sunday Celebration. 

 

Next Sunday, December 15:

1.    Bring items from this Sunday for Samaritan Inn, e.g., toilet paper and paper products. and many more listed on our Advent handout.

2.    Bring items for the Dallas Rape Crisis Center, e.g., womens' needs and office supplies, and more listed on the Advent handout.

3.    We will celebrate our Advent Penitential Rite after the Our Father.

4.    We will celebrate our 9th Anniversary & Christmas Brunch.

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome Back, Mr. Luke, and thanks for bringing John & Karen, your super grandparents

 

Readings:

Sirach  3, 17-18, 20, 28-29, Conduct your affairs with humility.

Psalm 68,  God, in your goodness you have made a home for the poor.

Hebrews 12, 18-19, 22-24,  You have approached Mt. Zion

Luke 14, 1, 7-14,  When you hold a banquet, invite the poor

 

 

 

 

 

And likewise to you, Dear Dee, welcome back.

 

Homily:

A story that touched me a few weeks ago, following the mass shooting in El Paso, was the story of Antonio Basco. His companion of many years was killed in that attack. Neither of them having family in the area, he was feeling really alone in planning the funeral.

Antonio invited the anybody who could to join him at the visitation and remembrance, thinking maybe a few well-wishers in El Paso would join him. What happened?

 

 

Our super candle lighting team in action.

 

Thousands showed up—yes, thousands!—and some came from hundreds of miles away. People heard the story. In their mercy they saw the pain of Antonio’s personal tragedy: he was surviving the loss of his long-time companion.

Their hearts went out to him, and they showed up to be with him in his loss and grief. Many others, who heard of the story, also felt mercy for his suffering and were with him in Spirit, in their hearts.

 

 

 

Watch out, Luke, you will get put to work bringing up our gifts.

 

From today’s readings, Mount Sinai is where Moses received the law from God – the ten “thou shalt not’s” for a people with a short memory. Those words and warnings scared me as a young person hearing them in catechism class and the special preparation for First Communion and First Confession—the stakes went up for us kids with the pressure of the exaggerated importance of those really big events—1^st communion, 1^st confession. (We definitely didn’t get M & M’s for our penance in First Confession.)

 

 

 

The Communion Team, Connie, Denni, Brent, Mike, and Cheryl.

 

Rather than the ‘thou shalt not’s’ from Moses on Mount Sinai, it’s ‘Love one another as I have loved you,’ from Jesus. Jesus spoke Good News—that we were never separated from God by Adam’s sinfulness or our own.

God is always with us, all of us. We always have access to God’s Spirit, all of us. The Spirit of God is within us, and is present in all our relationships, all of us. In his words, and in how he lived his life, Jesus brought the Good News.

 

 

Mike & Mike, our local sportscasters?

 

 

How do you acknowledge God’s Spirit—within you, and in every connection you have with others?  How do you acknowledge the Good News of Jesus and live it?

 

 

Our reps to the local Open Window organization, a group hoping to update the Catholic Church, for example permitting women to be priests.

Readings: 1 Kings 19, 9-13 (or 1-15); Psalm 85; Romans 9, 1-5; Matthew 14, 22-33.

1 Kings:  Even though 1 Kings focuses mostly on King Solomon & his accomplishments, the latter half of the work shows how at Solomon's death the kingdom split into two hostile & petty states, Israel in the north & Judah in the south around Jerusalem. 

As I have pointed out concerning prophets, Elijah condemns the behavior, especially of the rulers, and promises punishment.  I am going to have all of chapter 19 read, because it is an interesting story.

In chapter 18 Elijah has had a faith duel with 450 prophets of another god, Baal, a god whom the  king of Judah, Ahab honored.  Elijah not only triumphs over the 450, he also kills them all.  Ahab is impressed and spooked.  But not his wife, the famous Jezebel.  She wants to kill Elijah and tells him so. 

Elijah is so afraid he runs away and wants to die.  Along the way Yahweh meets up with him and invites hims to hike up the mountain of Sinai (Horeb).  Here is what happens on the mountain.

The Whispering Sound

Just like Elijah and just like Jesus in the Gospel,  7 of us have been to the mountain the past two weeks.  We have felt the wind, felt the earthquake, and felt the fire.

On our first day in we had to go about 6 miles from a place called Rowell Meadow to a camp area called Comanche Meadow.  There was a bear box at the campsite.  It was a long, hot uphill hike all day.  We were carrying food for 8 days in packs that ranged from fifty plus pounds to seventy.  The wind was what we did not have in our lungs. 

We spent two nights at Comanche, a third night at Roaring River, and the fourth night at Upper Ranger Meadow, one of the most beautiful campsites, beautiful because it was a lush moraine with groves of pine & fir surrounded by a cirque at the head, cliffs on two sides, and the valley we had climbed out of behind.  We camped as usual by a mountain stream.

Next morning we got up before dark at 5:00 and started a 2 thousand foot climb up 11 thousand foot Elizabeth Pass.  We left early to take advantage of the cool early hours and to get to our next campsite in the middle of the afternoon instead of night.  It was on the ascent of Elizabeth that we felt the fire, in our legs.  There were steps four feet high in the trail and always up, up, and up some more.   The legs & hips would scream, "Enough."  But up we went steadily to the top, arriving around 11:00. 

At this point one thinks, "I got it made now."  No way.  We had to descend 3 thousand feet in 3 miles.  This is the dangerous part because it is easier to slip on a loose rock or gravel and fall down.  Our packs were lighter, but here we felt the earthquake when we stepped off a step so high we had to turn sideways.  Boom, you land on one foot and the earth quakes right through the bones.

Finally, about 5:00 we all reached an unplanned campsite beside a mountain stream and decided to go no further.  We were all gassed and ready to set down for a two nighter in the same campsite.

This was how we felt in our bodies the wind, the fire, and the earthquake.  Unlike Elijah, for me, God was in all three.  Connected to all was beauty, exhilaration, and the awareness of the privilege it is to be able to hike through such remote high sierra spectacle. 

For me also there was the whispering sound, the small voice.  Almost every day we would hear the sound of a jet flying overhead, perhaps heading to or from Oakland-San Francisco.  Frequently, I would search the sky, following the sound trail to find the tiny silver tube hurtling through the heavens.  Almost never did I see them  When I did see one, it was so small, so insignificant.  Yet, I knew that inside that little dart people like me were snoozing, reading, looking at the mountains below them, and totally unaware of me.  I had been in those darts and would be in one again in a few days.  I had such a feeling of smallness in the universe.  A blessing.

The blessing was doubled Thursday when I got into one of the little darts, which at Fresno looked pretty big.  I ended up in row 19 and in row 17 was a young family with a little boy about 4 or 5 and a little girl just learning to walk.  The little boy busied himself with stuff in his seat next to his father.  But the girl needed to move around, which the parents allowed.  She walked up the aisle, she crawled down the aisle.  And the parents watched over her, as did we all.  The gentleness of the parents juxtaposed upon my reflection that I was in the little insignificant dart moved me.  I could see me from below searching for this little dart by following its sound and I could likewise view the treasure of the family. 

Once I told the husband and once I told them both that I admired they way they played with their kids. 

Jesus went up the mountain to pray.  Elijah went up to meet the lord.  We 7 went up the mountain.  Unlike Elijah I found him in all the elements, the wind, the fire, the earthquake, and the whispering sound.

Where do you find him?

AUDIO:  http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2008-08-10.mp3

 

 

 

Readings: Baruch 5, 1-9; Psalm 126, The Lord has done Great Things for Us; We are filled with Joy; Philippians 1, 4-11; Luke 3, 1-6

 

Baruch:

  

Author: probably not Baruch, who was Jeremiah's secretary.  More likely some anonymous person or persons a few centuries after Jeremiah. 

  

Date of composition: during the Babylonian Captivity, ca. 550, or during the Maccabees' revolt ca. 100 BCE.  More likely the latter.  If so, like Daniel, the little book intends to strengthen resistance of the Jews during the Macabeean Revolt, using the Babylonian time to encourage the people.

  

 

Our passage: a message of optimism, hope, peace, and a new day.  The passage reflects 2nd Isaiah's message (chapter 40), which is likewise quoted in Luke's gospel for today.  The famous 2nd Isaiah: Luke uses this source to build his nativity narrative.  See also the lyrics of Handel's Messiah.

  

The Advent Wreath:

  

Date:

a.  Pre-christian Germans used wreaths at the darkest, coldest time of winter to signify resistance to the season and optimism that warmth and light would return.

b.  ca. 1500 German Lutherans emphasized the wreath and eventually it spread throughout Catholic & Protestant groups.

   

 

Symbolism: 

a.  green boughs indicate continuous life even in the winter. 

b.  the circle signifies both immortality and the past, present, and future focus of Advent.

c.  the lit candles symbolize the light & warmth coming in the person of Christ.

 

Purification: self purification before entering the temple
was common long before the time of Christ.  He did it.  Fasting & penance (hair shirts) were intended to purify me before I celebrated the birth of Jesus (the past), the presence of Jesus (the present), and the hope of being together with him (future).  This goes way back to the time of the earliest Christians in the first couple of centuries after Jesus' death.  For example, in Saragossa, Spain, 380 CE, a church council decreed 3 weeks of fasting & penance as self purification for the celebration of Christmas.

 

Our Fifth Anniversary Today, the Past, the Present, the Future

 

The year is 2004.  There were two special months that year, August and December. 

  

It was August when the first step took place.  I got suspended by the bishop because someone sent in an anonymous letter saying Stack wanted to get married.  This was amusing because I had been saying this for years.  What was different was that in 5/5/05 we were planning to do it.

    

So, rather than have the opportunity to say good bye to folks, I said, “Yes, okay.  I am out.”  And I moved out of Jesuit.

 

The second step.  The first Sunday of December, this Sunday five years ago, we went public with our celebrations.  I remember being rather anxious that Sunday and then utterly humbled and touched at seeing so many of you and so many others whom I had not see for four months, all come pouring into the cafetorium.  I was all choked, first seeing everyone, then trying to start the celebration after walking down that passageway that no longer exists.

 

 

 

This Mass came about because of the number of people who kept asking, “Where are you saying Sunday Masses and can we come?”  I had been using peoples’ living rooms and patios, but we had room for no more that about 25 people. 

Bernadette was especially influential in the process.  We even came close to using the club house at their subdivision, Spring Park.  It would have been beautiful and one third the cost (they wanted us to pay only $100 per Sunday).  Trouble was, 100 people was the maximum. 

 

When we decided to go public I had three hopes in mind.  One, that we would celebrate, all that we have and all that we are.  Secondly, that we would emphasize healthy spirituality on a basic Catholic/Christian foundation.  A spirituality of acceptance.  And thirdly, that we would be a helping community while not focusing on money, which is why I decided to do away with passing the hat at the collection time.  

  

People occasionally ask me, “Where are you going with this community?  What about the future?  Do you want to expand?”   Other than what we are doing, I have no idea about the future or where we are going.  I don’t have a need to expand.  I love our size which enables people to know one another.   

 

An extraordinary blessing of this 5^th anniversary year that affects our future is the

gift that Tony and Gayle bring.  I have asked at least a dozen married priests in the greater Dallas area to help us out and none of them felt comfortable doing so.  And then along comes Tony. 

   

Consequently, in the spirit of Advent we treasure the gifts of the past, we confidently leave the future in God’s hands, and we celebrate the gifts of the present.

 

How?

  

Picture 1:  Mass with Kevin helping

Picture 2:  Mass beginning

  

Picture 3:  Mass Helpers

 

Picture 4:  Cathy on her birthday, Mike & Geri

 

Picutre 5:  The Brunch, Marilyn, Marlene, Theresa, and Tom

   

Readings: Amos 8, 4-7; Psalm 113, Praise the Lord who lifts up the Poor; 1 Timothy 2, 1-8; Luke 16, 1-13

 

Luke’s Gospel, 3 observations:

 

1.  The Story.  The rich man and his steward.  The steward is  squandering the rich man’s property.  The rich man tells the steward that he is going to be fired after he prepares the accounts. 

 

 

The steward figures he will make friends with the debtors by cutting their debts to the rich man.  He cuts bills as much as 50%. 

 

 

The rich man, instead of berating the steward, praises him for his strategy.  

2.  What is going on here?  Looks like the steward is stealing from the rich man.   In fact, he is cutting out his commission, not stealing anything.  The Jews reading this parable would know this immediately.  The steward made his living by charging a service fee. 

 

3.  Any lessons here for us?

  a.  One of Luke’s favorite messages: Our God is merciful.  See the Prodigal Son & Good Samaritan.  The rich man praises the steward for being ingenious.

  b.  We are challenged to be equally ingenious.  Use our talents.

 

Extra point: watch out for taking a hit from the sayings at the end, trustworthiness, dishonesty in little things, 2 masters.  There might be a trap here: either/or spirituality. 

 

 

Sources:

Francis Vanderwall, The Liberating Stories of Jesus, chapter 4;

New Interpreter's Study Bible;

New American Bible, on line;

St. Louis U., The Center for Liturgy, on line

 

 

We Need a Mediator to Ransom Us?

 

 

Many of you know that this old geezer loves to dance.  In fact, it was through dancing that Rosemary & I met.  I was looking for the best dancer.

 

 

For the past year or more I have not been able to dance because I could not swing my hips or swivel.  For the past month or at least since I finished the Hotter ‘N Hell Hundred, I have had it in mind that I would like to return to dancing, probably at some special event. 

 

 

The event took place last weekend at the wedding we did in Ashville, NC, for a girl very dear to me.  It was Friday night.  We had finished the rehearsal and gone to a bar-b-que place for the dinner. 

 

 

We returned to the hotel and what they call The Great Hall, the big stone lobby.  Playing dance music was a 3 piece group and a lady singer.  I had thought the wedding reception would be the fitting place to make our dancing debut.  But suddenly that Great Hall, the presence of others from the wedding, and the mood of the place made it the moment. 

 

 

We danced.  I could do it.  It was exhilarating.  Like getting back on a bicycle after a long lay off.  To top it off, the lady singing even complimented us by saying, “Good dancing.”  I was quite touched.

 

 

I talk about this event because I want to tie it into a line in Timothy that says more or less, “There is one mediator who gave himself as ransom for all.”

 

 

My Question: Do we need someone to ransom us?  Ransom us from what?  Did Emma need to be ransomed when we baptized her?  What about Chloe or Zoe or Georgie or Sam or Sean?

 

 

Many of us have been trained to think that we come into this life stained, imperfect, in fact, sinful, not because of anything we did.  But because some distant ancestors, Adam & Eve, sinned and we all inherit it.  If the baby was not baptized and the sin removed, it would go to where?  Not

hell, not heaven.  Limbo.

 

 

 

Folks, what if there is no limbo?  The Catholic Church now says it was just a concept, not a reality.  Go further.  What if we don’t need to be ransomed from anything?  What if there really is no original sin?  That when we see a little baby and think how good it is, our perception is 100% accurate. 

 

 

Biblical scholars and students of the history of religion are now suggesting that, just like Limbo, original sin is a concept thought up to explain imperfect behavior.  If this is so, could it be that none of us is in need of some kind of ransom?

 

 

That lady singer complimenting us on our dancing in The Great Hall was another glimpse into the goodness of people.  The wedding was overflowing with the goodness.  Parents, the marvelous couple, little kids, and even some old geezers.  No need for ransom there.

 

 

And if we don’t need to be ransomed, where does that leave us?

 

 

Picture 1:   Beginning of Mass

 

 

Picture 2:   Emily with her mom, Julie

 

 

Picture 3:   Communion preparation